Gruvi Weekly Digest #16 — A weekly catch up on what we found interesting at Gruvi.

This week we’ve got news on how to use batteries to create you 2.0, as well as an overview of this year’s design trends and a recommendation for a very important and masterfully written book. If you’re a podcast aficionado (who isn’t these days?!), you’re likely to find the discussion of Serial’s second season storytelling value very interesting. And if you’re afraid Big Brother is watching you (who isn’t these days?!), reading about filmmaker Laura Poitras’ experiences should make you feel more at ease.

Learn a new language faster than ever! Leave doubt in the dust! Be a better sniper! Could you do all that and more with just a zap to the noggin? Maybe.

Matt, Operations Lead

John Williams turned 84 this week. Of course, to say he’s a legend would be an understatement. His power to elevate films is extraordinary (his most recent being the latest “Star Wars”), and if you’ve seen any of “The Importance of John Williams” videos on YouTube you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. My favourite is the ET edition. Without Williams’s score, this iconic scene from cinema history is flat and emotionless, with everyone just awkwardly staring at one another — it’s great!

After establishing podcasts as a force to be reckoned with, the second season of Serial has been met with criticism for shifting gears with Bowe Bergdahl’s story. Seth Simons argues that critics should consider its storytelling value before complaining that knowing how the story ends alters its value.

“Better Angels” is not only one of the best books I ever read, it’s also certainly the most optimistic. Pinker shows, through a mind-boggling diversity of sources, that every conceivable form of violence has been decreasing ever since humanity was a thing. As you’d expect from his polymath genius, he draws from a score of fields like Anthopology, Psychology and Game Theory in order to attempt to explain this phenomenal collection of trends.